Australian museums received $657.8m in government funding in 2007-08: ABS (Media Release)

March 27, 2009

Embargoed: 11.30 am (AEDT) 18/2009

Australian museums received $657.8m in government funding in 2007-08: ABS

Australia’s 1,184 museum organisations received $657.8m in government funding in 2007-08, according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). State Government funding comprised of 62.2% of this total, followed by Federal Government funding of 31.2%, with the remaining 6.6% coming from Local Government.

Projects that were deemed as one-off comprised of 12.5% ($82.2m) of all government funding.

During 2007-08, museums received a total of $998.4 million in income. Government funding accounted for 65.8% of all income. Fundraising accounted for a further 10.6% of income and paid admissions 7.6%.

In total there were 1,456 museum and art gallery locations operating in Australia at the end of June 2008. Just over half (53%) of our museums and art galleries were social history museums, 29% were historic properties/sites and 12% were art museums/galleries.

At the end of June 2008 museums and art galleries employed 7,856 people. In addition to paid employees there were 23,426 volunteers in museums and art galleries throughout June 2008. These volunteers worked a total of 444,749 hours throughout June 2008, or an average of 19 hours per volunteer for the month. Museums employing less than 20 people accounted for over three-quarters (77%) of all volunteers and 84% of volunteer hours.

Museums and art galleries held over 52 million museum objects/artworks (at the end of June 2008) however, only 5.4% were on display for public viewing. Victoria held the most (38%) museum objects/artworks, followed by New South Wales with 34%.

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